Needs
by XellAn-Chan
Summary: Filia finds a small child wandering the steets...who is she? where did she come from? and why is she so much like a certain demon...? (rated PG for language)


Needs  
  
As a caring individual, a small child walking alone through your village always catches your eye. You wonder about them, why they are alone and if they are okay. It touches you especially when that child is battered and disheveled and appears to be frightened.  
  
You're on your way to the temple when you notice her. There is a little girl who fits the above description stealing through the Court Square. You approach her cautiously, expecting her to be scared.  
  
"Ohayo gozaimasu, Little One." Your voice is soft, "Are you lost?"  
  
She stares at you, taking in your golden hair, kind face and blue eyes. Then a smile crosses her face. "Oh, no." She replies in a cocky voice. "I know exactly where I am."  
  
You are taken aback by her outgoing attitude. You expect less from a poor, solitary child. "What's your name?" You ask curiously. Perhaps you know her from somewhere or are acquainted with her parents.  
  
She grins "Sore wa himitsu desu."  
  
You freeze; your blood runs cold. You've only ever heard that phrase uttered with such pleasure from one other being. "You can trust me." You say calmly, "I'm a Priestess. I won't hurt you." She looks at you skeptically "If I tell you my name," You continue, "Will you tell me yours?"  
  
She considers that a moment, then nods. "M'kay."  
  
"My name is Filia." You tell her.  
  
She smiles as if she already knew. "I am Honey." She tells you exactly what she has been told to tell you, no more, no less. Only what she was instructed to say.  
  
You nod. "Who are your parents, Honey? Where's your mother?"  
  
"Haven't got a mother."  
  
"Your father then."  
  
She smiles wickedly. "Papa beats me." The man she speaks of, in reality, is not her father, but you don't know that. You are shocked, to say the least. And you are concerned for her safety. "Where do you live?"  
  
"Sore wa..."  
  
You sigh. "Why won't you answer me?"  
  
She is smiling, but her voice is serious. "You are a Ryuzoku. I am not."  
  
"What are you then?"  
  
"Sore wa..."  
  
You sigh again. She reminds you far too much of a certain some one you can't stand, an individual who makes you furious. You look at her. She doesn't look enough like him to be his. Her hair is a dark walnut color, her eyes a watery brown.  
  
She catches you looking at her and sticks out her tongue. You try asking her a few more questions, but she refuses to answer. By Ceipheed, this child is driving you crazy!  
  
However, you cannot spend much more time in the square. You have a job to do, and it isn't baby-sit stray children. So you take her to Aurelia's house. Your cousin, in your opinion, is a wonderful, caring mother. She has three children of her own, Chi, Terrah and Dante, and Honey seems to be about as old as Chi. Maybe the boy could get some answers from her.  
  
You have the feeling that you haven't been told the entire truth, that you are being deceived. Maybe at one point, this girl had been called Honey, but you get the feeling that it's not really her name.  
  
Chi answers the door. The eleven-year-old boy, like every one else in your village, has blond hair and blue eyes. He smiles when he sees you "Konichi wa, Filia-San." His sister, Terrah, age seven, and brother, four-year-old Dante, are behind him in the doorway.  
  
Terrah's eyes light up when she sees you. "Filia-San! Are you going to stay and play with me?" Often, when you are at Aurelia's house, you let her small daughter brush your long hair. Her face crumbles when you answer. "Ne, Rah-Chan. I've got to get to the temple. I'll be late."  
  
Aurelia appears in the doorway behind her children. "Filia-Chan." She smiles warmly, "What brings you here?" Your cousin is one of the most patient, caring and all around pleasant people you know. Sometimes you wish you were of the same temperment as she is.  
  
You step aside, revealing the child clinging to your skirt. Honey appears to be frightened and the look on her face makes your heart heavy at the thought of leaving her. No matter how much she reminds you of that bastard from your past, she is still a frightened child in a strange place.  
  
Aurelia looks at you; her saphire eyes are questioning. "Where did she come from? Whose child is she, Filia?" You sigh. "I don't know, Aurelia. I found her in the square and I can't take her to the temple with me. Would you be willing to watch her?" She nods. "Of course, Cousin. I am always willing to help my family."  
  
Honey looks at you through her watery eyes. "Anno, Fillia-Sama, do not leave me." She begs. She is clinging to you, as if the very thought of being seperated from you scares her. You are torn. The child needs you, but you do have a job to get done. Somehow, you manage to pry her from your legs and make your way to the temple.  
  
You flit around the temple, taking care of your duties, but all the while fretting over Honey. Is she all right, you wonder? Is she frightened? Or has she warmed up to Aurelia and the children?  
  
When you arive back at Aurelia's house later that evening, your cousin answers the door looking quite frazzled. "Thank Ceipheed you're here!" She exclaims. You give her a puzzled look and she pulls you into the house.  
  
There, in the middle of the room, is Honey. She's wearing some one's clothing that is several times too large for her and dangling a doll above Terrah and just out of her reach. "She's been like this -and worse- all day." Aurelia says wearily, "She hasn't stopped terorizing the children. Dante's been hiding for the past hour; I have no clue where he is. She hid all his and Terrah's play things and spent the morning giving them not-too-helpful clues where to find them. She also hid Chi's school work and he had to go without it. At lunch time, she pranced around the kitchen threatening us with my good knife. I could do nothing to disciplin her, for she just laughs when I punish her. And now she's running around in Vaughn's clothes..." She looks ready to cry. Vaughn, her husband, swats Honey and she just grins wickedly. "Papa," she says of the man who is not her papa, "hits much harder than that."  
  
"Honey!" You exclaim. Where has this demon-child come from? This monster is surely not the same child you found in the Court Square that very morning. She looks at you innocently. "Konban wa, Filia- Sama." You stare at her in disbelief. She acts as if she has done nothing wrong.  
  
You pull Vaughn's clothing off her and haul her up by her arm. She will learn respect as soon as you get her back to your home...  
  
Instead of crying when you smack her over her back-end, she laughs like she's enjoying it. "You will have to hit harder than Papa to hurt me!" She states gleefully. You marvel at her tollerance to pain. She runs through your house, looking at everything. "Child," You question her, "Why are you like this? Do you want your soul to be eternally damned?" She is staring out the window and doesn't even turn to look at you. "I have no soul." You feel your heart breaking. No doubt that is something her papa told her. "You must have a soul, Ney-Chan. Every one does." She shakes her head. "Ne, Filia-Sama. I have no soul. He took it when they killed me." You blink. "Who took it?" She turns to look at you. "The Hellmaster." You are stunned. Phibrizio is dead. Why does this child speak of such things?  
  
Worried for her, you draw her into your arms. "You are safe here, Child. You are safe from everything." She cries into your shirt as you rock her in your arms. "I love you, Filia-Sama. And I'll never see you again." She mumbles. She falls asleep, cradled there, as you wonder where exactly she came from. "What am I to do with you?" You question the sleeping child. "What's your name? Who's your daddy? What are the answers to all the unanswered questions?" You sigh, "I would keep you, were it not that you acted so much like one of them. I'm afraid you would drive me into a rage. I cannot keep you here."  
  
"Filia-sama, she is not yours to keep." A voice suddenly says.  
  
You know that voice and you hate the being it belongs to. You look up. He stands before you, the cause of all your problems. But he, for once, is not smiling and looks quite serious. "Why are you here, Xellos?" The Mazoku priest is your most hated enemy. He looks at the sleeping girl. "I came for her." You narrow your eyes. "What do you want with her?" He smiles fondly as he gazes at her. "XellAn-Chan is mine."  
  
You stare at him in horror. "You are the papa she spoke of?"  
  
He smiles as he takes her from you. "Has she been telling you that? Ne, I'm not her papa. She has no papa. Just me." Your face does not mirror his. Nothing the demon says has ever made you smile. "How did it come to be that you have a child?" You ask icily. "I found her. Her heart was darkened, so I took her. I made her my XellAn-Chan and she loves me as much as a Mazoku is allowed to love." He brags. You feel as if the blood has frozen in your veins. No wonder she is so like him in her manner of speech and her behavior. "If she is yours, Namagomi," you hear yourself ask, "then why is she here?"  
  
The answer you are expecting, "sore wa himitsu desu," is not the answer you receive. "Ah, Filia-Sama," the demon says softly, "She is still very human. She still needs love I cannot possibly offer. She was only a child of nine years when we killed her. Children do not understand things right away. She does not understand why I do not love her like that. I give her as much as I can and she is quite the little masochist, but she needs your kind of love too."  
  
You've never heard him speak of love before and the word is foreign coming from his mouth. "Why me, Xellos? Why send her to me? Why have her torment me and my relatives to get that love?" He smiles at you. "I enjoy it. That was purely for my pleasure. It made no differance to XellAn as long as some one loved her." He wraps his cloak around her and you can tell he is very fond of her. "And, Filli-Sama, I knew you'd take good care of her. I knew you'd love her, no matter what kind of hell she raised."  
  
You open your mouth to respond, but he's gone. Honey is gone with him. You'll probably never see her again, but why does it matter? She is a Mazoku and, what's worse, she belongs to some one you despise. Yet, you cannot get what she said out of your mind: "I love you, Filia- Sama." There is a tickle in the back of your throat and tears in your eyes as you realize that you will miss her. You have come to love her, even after only one day.  
  
You go over to the very window she'd been staring out and look up at the stars. Something your mother once told you creeps out of the recesses of your mind. You smile as you think about it. Then you say it outloud, wishing that she could somehow hear it too, for it comforts your heart.  
  
"All you need is love." 


End file.
